Redefining Barbados tourism

8 May 2011

This is according to Chairman of the BTA, Adrian Elcock. He was speaking during the Quarterly Tourism Media Briefing held at Dover Beach Hotel yesterday.

Elcock said that the BTA recognises the importance of tourism to the country and to Barbadians, and has a vision to intensify the relationship between the two in order to have all Barbadians embracing tourism.

He explained the BTA’s strategy for deepening this relationship, stating that a study has been deployed to include Barbadians and visitors alike in the rethinking and redefining of the Barbados brand.

“How are we going to do this within the context of rethinking and redefining our brand? I am pleased to report that we have engaged our local marketing agency to do an initial study interacting with Barbadians, interacting with our visitors, interacting with our stakeholders in the market so that we can have a sense of our brand identity, our brand values and whether we are indeed living up to our brand promises,” Elcock stated.

The BTA Chairman said that the study will consist of a series of interviews, starting at the airport, with both outbound and inbound visitors; moving on to a few popular local hotspots such as Oistins, the Souse Factory and Lemon Arbour, where a large number of Barbadians interact and where the researchers can get a true sense of how they feel about tourism. The information will then be used to determine what work, if any, needs to be done on the brand.

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“Once we get the information, it may tell us that the brand is fine; but it may also tell us that we have work to do, and I think we can all agree that that is probably going to be the outcome. We will then harmonise that work into creating a strategy for rolling out our new brand promise into the markets,” Elcock said.